[PREVIEW: Week 13] The top two teams in MLS, the Seattle Sounders and unbeaten Real Salt Lake, square off Saturday in Seattle. RSL will set a record for the
best start in MLS history with a win or tie. There's also an Eastern Conference rematch in Toronto, and the Cascadia Cup series resumes in Portland.

SEATTLE-REAL SALT LAKE. They have won just one MLS Cup combined, yet any meeting of Seattle (8-3-2, 26 points) and Real Salt Lake (6-0-6, 24 pts.) is a good one, and they occupy
the top two spots in the overall standings as the weekend action kicks off (live at 4 p.m. on MLS Live) at CenturyLink Field.

They have met five times in the past two seasons, including the 2012
playoffs, with each team winning twice and one game ending in a 0-0 tie. Those aggregate scores are tied, 4-4. In the current standings, they are just two points apart and they are the league’s
two highest-scoring teams (Seattle 25, RSL 23).

The difference is in the defense. RSL has conceded 13 goals (1.08 per game, third-lowest in MLS), eight fewer than the Sounders. Yet at home,
Seattle is solid enough, allowing seven goals in its seven games at the Link, where it is 5-2-0. RSL is by far the league’s best road team at 3-0-3, which mirrors its mark at Rio Tinto
Stadium.

RSL dominated possession against FC Dallas last weekend, controlling the ball 66 percent of the time, but couldn’t break through and wound up tied, 0-0. Though the tie enabled
it to match the LA Galaxy's league record for longest unbeaten streak to start a season (12 games), its failure to exploit an opponent that had played, and lost, in midweek left a sense of
frustration.

It will be shorthanded up front in Seattle. Against Dallas, Joao Plata aggravated an ouchy hamstring that ruled him out of three games earlier in the season. and
Devon Sandoval picked up a knock that kept him out of training early in the week. Robbie Findley, who underwent knee surgery in December, made his first appearance of the season as a sub
and played in a reserve game Monday. Sandoval is expected to be ready Saturday but not Plata. Findley is a maybe. So who will partner Olmes Garcia up front isn’t known.

The
absence of Clint Dempsey hasn’t greatly slowed down the Seattle attack. Obafemi Martins has scored five goals, second on the team to Dempsey, and leads it with six assists. Martins
nearly won that game in the final minutes but his shot came back off the post.

Midfielder Gonzalo Pineda converted a penalty kick for the tying goal in Vancouver and is establishing
himself as a capable playmaker. Cole Grossman has done a good job of replacing Kyle Beckerman at the base of RSL’s diamond midfield but he’ll need some help containing
Pineda, who is getting more adept at finding spaces in which to work. He’s second to Martins with four assists.

Whether Pineda or RSL maestro Javier Morales (4 goals, 5 assists)
is sharper and more effective might decide the outcome of this weekend’s top tussle.

TORONTO FC-COLUMBUS. Several teams have already played rematches
this season and the latest Eastern revival takes place between Toronto (4-4-1, 13 points) and Columbus (4-4-4, 16 points) Saturday (live at 5 p.m. ET on MLS Live) at BMO Field, where TFC tied
Montreal, 1-1, Wednesday in the first leg of the Amway Canadian Championship final and downed the Crew, 2-1, last July.

Toronto won the first 2014 meeting, 2-0, at Crew Stadium April 5, and
though it will be missing USA international Michael Bradley, it has beaten New York, 2-0, and tied Sporting Kansas City, 2-2, without him in its last two league games. It has played three fewer
games than the Crew yet can catch Columbus on points by winning, which even at this early stage of the season is a bad scenario for the visitor. Two assists by Federico Higuain propelled the
Crew past Chicago, 2-0, last weekend.

PORTLAND-VANCOUVER. The first round of Cascadia Cup games concludes in Portland on Sunday when the Timbers host
Vancouver (live at 9 p.m. ET on MLS Live) and any neutral observer will hope for a match akin to the previous two this season.

The Whitecaps surrendered a controversial penalty kick last
weekend that knotted up a pulsating match against Seattle at 2-2. The Sounders and Timbers opened the Cascadia Cup schedule in early April by sharing eight goals in an incredible encounter at
Providence Park, and a tie would be the likely outcome on Sunday as well, as these teams tied all three of their encounters last year.

Recent loan signing Fanendo Adi scored both goals
Wednesday for the revived Timbers (3-3-7, 16 points), who by beating Chivas USA, 2-0, won their second game in a row and are unbeaten in their last six. Still Portland has far more ties than it would
prefer, as do the ‘Caps (4-2-5, 17 points), who held a 2-1 lead last Saturday on a spectacular goal by Erik Hurtado and an elegant chip into an empty net by Gershon Koffie but were
re-tied by a controversial penalty-kick decision.

Portland needs a win. It was played two more games than the ‘Caps and by winning would vault over its foes into the playoff tier.